Apple Saying Goodbye to Intel Processors

[SubLGT]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...nounce-move-to-its-own-mac-chips-at-wwdc

Quote

...Apple Inc. is preparing to announce a shift to its own main processors in Mac computers, replacing chips from Intel Corp., as early as this month at its annual developer conference, according to people familiar with the plans... ...Apple is using technology licensed from Arm Ltd., part of Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp. This architecture is different from the underlying technology in Intel chips, so developers will need time to optimize their software for the new components.... ...This will be the first time in the 36-year history of the Mac that Apple-designed processors will power these machines. It has changed chips only two other times. In the early 1990s, Apple switched from Motorola processors to PowerPC. At WWDC in 2005, Steve Jobs announced a move from PowerPC to Intel, and Apple rolled out those first Intel-based Macs in January 2006.... ...Inside Apple, tests of new Macs with the Arm-based chips have shown sizable improvements over Intel-powered versions, specifically in graphics performance and apps using artificial intelligence, the people said. Apple's processors are also more power-efficient than Intel's, which may mean thinner and lighter Mac laptops in the future... ...Intel has faced more competition as its lead in production technology -- a key way to improve semiconductor performance -- has slipped. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. makes processors for many of Intel's rivals using a more advanced process.... ...TSMC will build the new Mac processors using a 5-nanometer production technique -- the same approach as for the next iPhones and iPad Pros. Intel rivals Qualcomm Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. also use TSMC to make their chips....

I don't expect Apple to support Intel based Macs for much longer. Maybe another 2-3 years, and then the latest OS will not be compatible with Intel.

 

[PimTac]

I think this has been a while in coming. Apple has had pretty good success with their own chips in their other products. As for the OS, that will be interesting to see how that pans out.

 

[simple_gifts]

I guess we don't to hear the "Macs are just PCs with the same components" mantra too much longer.

 

[sloinker]

All talk so far...we will see how they perform when they get to the real world.

 

[JeffKeryk]

TSMC is working on a 3nm tech node for Apple. That's 3 billionths of a meter for the smallest traces... They are one of the top purchasers of Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment, which is what I worked in for almost 25 years. I remember when 65nm Node seemed beyond physical limits and interconnects would be the limiting factor in chips. My things have changed.

 

[JeffKeryk]

The ARM RISC architecture is nothing new.

 

[UG_Passat]

Before intel, Apple used RISC processors

 

[OilReport99]

Originally Posted by UG_Passat

Before intel, Apple used RISC processors

I still remember the marketing campaign when they switched from RISC to Intel - and all the panicking from the Mac fanbois

 

[Skippy722]

Originally Posted by UG_Passat

Before intel, Apple used RISC processors

I'm still haunted by our iMac G3's start up sound, followed by the dial up internet sound.

 

[PimTac]

If I recall correctly, Apple included a conversion layer in their OS for computers that had certain processors. Was it Cocoa? That way they didn't leave the older Macs users in the dustbin when OS upgrades came out. Apple is known for enabling users with older systems to upgrade to the new OS for quite some time.

 

[PimTac]

Originally Posted by Skippy722

Originally Posted by UG_Passat

Before intel, Apple used RISC processors

I'm still haunted by our iMac G3's start up sound, followed by the dial up internet sound.

I used to own the first model G3 233 desktop. Coming from a LCII, that was a quantum leap.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Originally Posted by PimTac

I used to own the first model G3 233 desktop. Coming from a LCII, that was a quantum leap.

Ah, the Quantum...

 

[PowerSurge]

Been looking forward to this for many years.

 

[JHZR2]

Ive owned PowerPC macs,move owned intel macs. When the C2D intel macs first came out, I bought parallels and ran windows 7 and it was great. But tbh, I haven't booted a Mac in windows in probably four years now! With so many users going to those chrome laptops with who knows what hardware, it seems like the necessity of windows has truly been challenged. Granted, ms office is still the nest for me, and IMO it is most intuitive on a windows machine. I have to wonder if emulators and boot camp has gotten good enough that even without native x86 and whatever other intel-type designs are used, most users can still run windows on these new arm processors with most software, and anyone needing ultimate windows performance wouldn't be running in parallels or even dual boot on a Mac anyway...?

 

[Carmudgeon]

Originally Posted by SubLGT

I don't expect Apple to support Intel based Macs for much longer. Maybe another 2-3 years, and then the latest OS will not be compatible with Intel.

That wouldn't go over very well with the folks buying the Mac Pros released just five months ago. And while the A-series are supposed to be competitive with the typical Intel Core processors, there has been nothing about how they might compare to the Xeons.

Originally Posted by PimTac

If I recall correctly, Apple included a conversion layer in their OS for computers that had certain processors. Was it Cocoa? That way they didn't leave the older Macs users in the dustbin when OS upgrades came out. Apple is known for enabling users with older systems to upgrade to the new OS for quite some time.

That was Rosetta. The underlying technology ended up being absorbed by IBM, which still makes server chips with the POWER architecture. Much remains to be revealed. For most Mac users who don't dual boot, or run VMs, it won't be a big deal as long as Microsoft commits to an ARM version of Office for the Mac. Apple has pulled off two major architecture changes. Will be interesting to see if they can do it again, and convince developers to come along for the ride.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by OilReport99

Originally Posted by UG_Passat

Before intel, Apple used RISC processors

I still remember the marketing campaign when they switched from RISC to Intel - and all the panicking from the Mac fanbois

Yup, and the argument of course that the switch was happening because the PowerPC CPU's were too hot and too slow compared to what Intel was producing at the time. I note that the quote cites performance improvements, but then stresses in AI and in graphics. Intel integrated graphics have never been "class leading", so that should surprise nobody. But quite often a dedicated graphics setup from NVidia or ATI has been used, support for that scenario going forward should be interesting, if there is any. Of course the other question, as somebody else touched-on, is how well x86 emulation is going to work for things like Parallels. The transition to Intel was arguably one of the things that aided in Apple gaining popularity outside of very specific circles, because you could very easily, through either Boot Camp or Parallels, run Windows on it. Both my Mac's run Parallels, will be interesting to see how that works going forwards.

 

[BearZDefect]

Apple polishes ARM CPU designs for their iPhone and iPads, they are getting fast enough to run a desktop Mac. It also makes sense to me that Apple would want to move all their work to a single processor architecture (ARM) instead of two (ARM and Intel). 3 nm won't be ready for production for a few years, but Apple won't be quite ready to abandon Intel for a few years either. In any case, this should put more pressure on Intel, which is good.

 

[PandaBear]

It's about time. I was wondering when will they do that back in 2010 or so. I was thinking of all the players out there Apple would be the company who did that first, then Chromebook came along and Apple was no longer the thin and light one anymore. They are probably waiting for the software eco sphere to mature, in particular the app store and the development kit that will generate the software for both platform, then gradually the retirement of older OS that has no development tool to support cross development. Also now that TSMC has the node advantage, they can build chips that are more efficient than Intel, they don't have to worry about leaving a platform then going back in because they can't build up to date chips. Will be interesting to see what will happen in the future, but I am hopeful.

 

[Skippy722]

I was kind of hoping the new Mac Pro would be using AMD Threadripper. I'll reserve judgement on ARM laptops till they come out. For most, they probably won't notice a difference though.

 

[tcrs_circuit]

It's unlikely that they will do away with Intel CPUs in the Pro line for a while due to software. The Air is likely to get a Arm CPU, and they have been gearing up for that for a while now with the new architecture used on the new boards (T2 chip replacing the SMC and PCH). The first couple years of this are likely to be a disaster. We see dead T2 chips all the time so I can't imagine how the first revision or 2 of these CPUs will go.